Mobile devices are typically owned by individuals or a business (or enterprise) but are generally used for at least business and personal purposes. When used for business needs, specialized enterprise applications are executed. Such applications may also be used for personal use, e.g., email applications. This is especially the case with end devices such as “smart” mobile phones. Such use is applicable to other endpoints such as laptops, tablets, Internet devices, etc., which access similar enterprise services as well as virtualized desktops from a network cloud.
With rapid growth of smartphones, tablets, cloud computing, and ubiquitous wide-area communications, new usage models are arising where work-related, personal, entertainment, etc. activities are performed on a single mobile device. The proliferation of these devices has also made it possible to perform computer-related tasks in many places. Even further, highly portable, powerful computers with wireless connections are radically changing the way people think about and their use of computing devices. Users no longer limit their use to a single device. Different devices are often used based on what device best suit the user's current needs.
Nevertheless, mobile and other endpoint devices present a lingering problem because such end devices can be compromised in a way that inadvertently permits unauthorized users to gain access to sensitive data and information. For example, open wireless network interfaces allows external hackers and other adversaries to probe these devices for vulnerabilities, which can then lead to installation of rogue programs and/or the theft of data.
At each place a user works, the user runs applications, specifies preferences, and is allowed to access resources and files according to local rules. These elements, together with the name-to-resource mappings, can be referred to as a user's computing persona. Currently, a user's environment or computing persona is defined on each machine. Each machine has a single computing persona for each user and computing personae fbr a particular user typically vary from device to device.